East Carolina still has a football game left to play this season, but head coach Ruffin McNeill has already identified two memories — and two phrases — which he said define the 2013 edition of the Pirates.

North Carolina’s public university system should increase its focus on efficiency as students and taxpayers alike grapple with the rising cost of higher education, a report Wednesday to state legislators said.

The major collegiate athletic conferences have fractured and reconfigured in recent years as individual universities chased the additional millions in television revenue their football and basketball teams command.

With Bonner Bridge open again for N.C. 12 traffic on the Outer Banks, a state Department of Transportation contractor expects in the next couple of days to begin building a protective structure of concrete and sandbags around bridge supports that had been undermined by the turbulent waters of Oregon Inlet.